The Corieltauvi combined groups of people living in what is today most of the East Midlands (Lincolnshire. Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire). Before about 50 to 1 BC, archaeological evidence suggests two different groups or tribes lived in this region. One lived in what is today Lincolnshire, the other in what is today Northamptonshire. Both areas were different to each other and were important centres of population and economy in the period c. 400 and 100 BC.

The Corieltauvi are known from their coins that are found throughout the East Midlands. This group appears to have been a new federation that united earlier different groups. This was a region were people lived in villages, and some times larger settlements. Leicester was certainly an important large settlement before the Roman Conquest, as were a number of large settlements in Lincolnshire, such as Dragonby and Old Sleaford.

Iceni

This was another tribe that issued coins before the Roman Conquest. Their coins and other archaeological evidence shows that the tribe's territory was in the modern counties of Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. They appear to have been a wealthy and powerful group of tribes between 200 and 50 BC.

From their territory come the finest hoards of gold treasure found in Iron Age Britain; the Snettisham torcs. Other hoards of elaborately decorated bronze chariot fittings point to a love of conspicuous display by the nobles of the Iceni. This tribe also shunned contacts with the Roman world and the changes they brought with them that characterised the life styles of Catuvellauni and Trinovantes at this time.

The Iceni had important religious centres at Snettisham and at Thetford. But when they were made into Roman Civitas, the Romans did not choose either of these centres, but the settlement at Caistor, near what is today Norwich. Was this because the Iceni led the most successful revolt against Roman rule in the history of Roman Britain? When the Romans invade southern Britain in AD 43 the Iceni were friendly towards the new rulers. Their king Prasutagus became a client-king of Rome. But on his death the kingdom was incorporated into the Roman province and together with other abuses led to the Icenian revolt led by Prasutagus' widow, Queen Boudicca.

Demetae

These were the people who lived in the fertile lands of Pembrokeshire and much of Carmarthenshire in southwest Wales. They lived in small farms scattered across the countryside and shared many features of their lives with their neighbours across the Bristol Channel in Devon and Cornwall. They were friendly towards the Romans and quickly adapted to Roman rule, unlike their more warlike and scattered neighbours in the mountains of Wales; the Silures and the Ordovices.

Because of this the Demetae did not need to be intensively garrisoned by the Roman army, except along their eastern border, which may have been to protect them from their hostile neighbours, the Silures. The tribe was incorporated into the province of Britannia and became a civitas (an administrative unit, or county, within the Roman province). The capital of the Roman civitas was at Carmarthen (Moridundum Demetarum).

Catuvellauni

The Catuvellauni were the tribe that lived in the modern counties of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and southern Cambridgeshire. Their territory also probably included tribes in what is today Buckinghamshire and parts of Oxfordshire. The tribal name possibly means 'good in battle'.

The Catuvellauni existed as a tribe at the time of Julius Caesar, but in the following years became an extremely powerful group. Their first known king was Tasciovanus, who is known from the coins he minted with his name on them. He founded a royal and ritual centre at Verulamium, modern St Albans in about AD10. There were several other large settlements or clusters of villages in their territory, such as at Baldock and Welwyn.

Before this time, the Catuvellauni, Trinovantes and Cantiaci were very different from other British tribes. They had been using coins for at least a century, adopted the same way of burying the dead as was practised in northern France, and eat and dressed in ways more common in France than other parts of Briton. Tasciovanus successors created a large kingdom through conquest and alliance that included the Trinovantes and Cantiaci.

The most successful king was Cunobelinus (Cymbeline), but after his death in the late 30's AD, his kingdom was beset by rivalries between his successors. This was the excuse used by the Roman Emperor Claudius to conquer southern Britain in 43 AD. The Catuvellauni were one of the most pro-Roman of British peoples who very quickly and peacefully adopted Roman lifestyles and Roman rule.

A very rich grave of a pro-Roman Catuvellaunian ruler who lived at the time of the Roman Conquest has been excavated at Folly Lane, St Albans. They became one of the first civitas in the new province, Verulamium becoming one of the first and most successful cities in Roman Britain.

Silures  (mine) lol

Several Roman authors including Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus mention this tribe and later civitas (administrative unit in a Roman province). Their territory was south east Wales - the Brecon Beacons and south Welsh valleys. A people of the mountains and valleys, we know relatively little about how they lived.

Like the other tribes of the Welsh Mountains, they were difficult for the Romans to conquer and control. For a time in the period around AD 45-57, they led the British opposition to the Roman advance westwards.

Tacitus describes them as a strong and warlike nation, and for ten years or more the Romans fought to contain, rather than conquer them. Although defeated and occupied by the early 60's, their bitter resistance may explain the late grant of self governing civitas status to them only in the early 2nd century. The capital was established at a previously unoccupied site at Caerwent and was given the name Venta Silrum. Tacitus described them as swarthy and curly-haired, and suggested their ancestors might be from Spain because of the similarities in appearance with some peoples in Spain. However, there is no evidence to suggest any genetic links between south Wales and parts of Spain.

Dubunni

This large tribe lived in the southern part of the Severn Valley and the Cotswolds and were one of the few groups to issue coins before the Roman Conquest. The main distribution of these coins shows that the Dubunni occupied or ruled an area as far south as the Mendips, and the coins also hint that the group was divided into northern and southern subgroups.

The Dubunni lived in very fertile farmland in farms and small villages. They did not resist the Roman Conquest, unlike their neighbours, the Silures.

Indeed, they may have been one of the first tribes to submit to the Romans, even before the Romans reached their territory. The Dubunni had a central or important settlement at Bagendon in Gloucester, on the eastern edge of their territory. This centre was replaced by the important Roman city of Cirencester, which became the capital of the Dubunnic civitas after the Roman Conquest.

Dumnonii

The Dumnonii were the British tribe that occupied the whole of the South West peninsula and parts of Southern Somerset. They did not use coins, nor did they have large settlements to act of political centres for the tribe, and there is no evidence for a dynasty of Dumnonian kings.

The Dumnonii were probably a group of smaller tribes that lived across the large area of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. The people lived in small farmsteads, usually surrounded by large walls, however, there were also local differences in the types of settlements and other aspects of life between different parts of Devon and Cornwall. There is also evidence for contacts and trade with Brittany with whom they shared similar styles of highly decorated pottery. Cornwall was one of the few parts of Britain where the dead were buried at this time.

The Dumnonii appear to have accepted the Roman conquest without resistance and as a result few garrison forts were placed in their territory, although this area never fully adopted Roman ways of life.

Life styles and types of settlements remained little changed from the Iron Age through the Roman period. The Romans granted them civitas status and the town of Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) was their administrative centre.

Durotriges

Centred in Dorset, this people were also found in southern parts of Wiltshire and Somerset and western Dorset. This was a people that minted and used coins before the Roman Conquest, but there is no evidence from the coins or burials for a strong dynasty of kings. Rather the Durotriges seem to have been a loosely knit confederation of smaller tribal groups at the time of the Roman conquest. One of these smaller tribal groups that lived around Dorchester, buried their dead in inhumation cemeteries.

A unique feature of the Durotriges at this time was that they still occupied hillforts. Although hillforts are one of the most well known features of the Iron Age, most were no longer occupied at turn of the first millennium. Best known of these Durotrigean hillforts is that of Maiden Castle near Dorchester, others include South Cadbury Castle and Hod Hill.

A major trading centre existed at Hengistbury Head from which cross-channel trade with Gaul was controlled. This may be the settlement called Dunium by Ptolemy which was located on the border between the Durotiges and Atrebates. Cross channel trade was not an important source of goods for the Durotriges, who preferred local products.

A particular type of pottery made at Poole Harbour was traded through out the territory of the Durotriges. At the time of the Roman invasion the Durotriges put up a spirited, if unsuccessful opposition and they are almost certainly one of the two tribes that Suetonius records fighting against Vespasian and the 2nd legion. After the conquest they were made into a civitas with their capital was at Durnovaria (Dorchester) in the mid-70's. Later a second Durotrigean civitas was created, administered from Lindinis (Ilchester).

Belgae

The Belgae were probably not a British tribe. The Romans applied the name Belgae to a whole group of tribes in northwest Gaul, but the appearance of a civitas of this name in Britain is something of a mystery.

According to the Roman geographer Ptolemy the territory of the Belgae included not only Winchester but also Bath nearby and an as yet unidentified settlement called Ischalis.

It seems likely that Ptolemy has made an error here since the resulting shape of the territory of the Belgae would bear little resemblance to pre-Roman tribal geography and would be something of an administrative nightmare. If the civitas was actually focussed around Winchester (called by the Romans Venta Belgarum - 'town of the Belgae') there is still a problem, since this area seems to have been part of the old kingdom of the Atrebates.

The civitas of the Belgae was therefor most probably an artificial creation of the Roman administration, like the neighbouring civitas of the Regni, and was created at about the same time in c. AD 80 following the death of King Cogidubnus. Its administrative capital at Winchester was known as Venta Belgarum, which was an important settlement before the Roman Conquest.

Atrebates

This is another British tribe that shares a name with a tribe in pre-Roman France. They were the second most powerful group in southern Britain at the time of the Roman Conquest, they issued and used coins, and had many contacts with France.

They probably consisted of a group of tribes ruled by a single dynasty, their territory originally stretched from what is today West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire.

After the Roman Conquest, their territory was divided into three separate civitates, one such centre was at the major settlement at Silchester, near Reading.

Another major Royal centre, comparable to those at St Albans, Colchester and Stanwick, was at Chichester. The Atrebates had long links of trade with France and it is likely that people from the Atrebates were related by married to people from French tribes. Commas, a French leader from the French tribes called the Atrebates, fled to Britain during Julius Caesar's conquests of Gaul. Commius then appears as the name of the Atrebates ruler.

From about 15 BC, the Atrebates seem to have established friendly relations with Rome, and it was an appeal for help from the last Atrebatic king, Verica, which provided Claudius with the pretext for the invasion on Britain in AD 43. After the Roman Conquest, the territory of the Atrebates was divided up, with Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) becoming the capital of a Roman civitas that administered the area of modern Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and north Hampshire.

The name Atrebates means 'settlers' or 'inhabitants'.

Regni

Like the civitas of the Belgae, the Regni are not a tribe or people known at the time of the Roman Conquest, rather the Romans created this civitas (an administrative unit within a Roman province), possibly around a smaller tribal group that were part of the Atrebates.

Before the Roman Conquest, the whole of the territory between what is to today West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire was the territory of the Atrebates, this important kingdom had two major centres at Silchester, near Reading, and Chichester.

West Sussex was an area with very strong links to France before the Roman Conquest and was one of the first areas to use coins and adopt north French styles of cremating the dead.

Between about 10 BC and AD 43, Chichester became an important Royal centre, on a par with St Albans, Stanwick or Colchester. This area was very pro-Roman and served as one of the bases for the Roman Conquest of Britain. The ruler of the area was King Cogidubnus, who started the great palace at Fishbourne, outside Chichester, after the Conquest.

Because of his help to the Romans, Chichester at least remained a client Kingdom and not part of the new Roman province until Cogidubnus' death in about 80 AD. After this time, the territory of the Artebates was divided up into three civitas, with the Regni being the civitas centred on Chichester and administering West Sussex.

Cantiaci

This is the name of the tribe or people who lived in north and east Kent. Like other peoples in southeast Britain at the time of the Roman Conquest, this group was very open to influences from France and the Mediterranean World and they eventually became part of the large kingdom of Cunobelinus.

Like the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes they buried their dead according to the north French custom of cremation.

After the Roman Conquest they became a civitas based on their principle settlement at Canterbury.

Trinovantes

The Trinovantes are the first British tribe to be mentioned by a Roman author, appearing in Caesar's account of his invasion of 54 BC. By this date they seem to have been already involved in a power struggle with the neighbouring tribes to the west who were to be forged into the kingdom of the Catuvellauni under Tasciovanus. This group shared the same ways of life and religious practices as the Catuvellauni and Cantiaci.

They used coins, cremated their dead, ate from plates and drank from cups, They became part of the large kingdom established by the rules of the Catuvellauni.

The king Cunobelinus essentially absorbed the two tribes into one larger kingdom and he or his predecessors, established Colchester as a new royal site on the same model as St Albans. It was Colchester, that became the target for the Roman Emperor Claudius' invasion in AD43.

After the Roman Conquest, the Trinovantes were restored as tribal entity in the form of a civitas (an administrative unit or county) within the new Roman Province. The capital of the civitas was the Roman city of Colchester, which was originally founded as colony for retired Roman soldiers.